Travelers' Intercom
Turkey with Treasures of Travel
Not just about ancient cities and monuments but also on the ethnic/cultural background of each place visited, our three-week tour “Eastern Turkey & the Black Sea” was a memorable experience.
Cruised aboard Costa Deliziosa
A travel companion and I took the 11-night cruise “Eastern Mediterranean & Alexandria, Egypt” aboard Costa Cruises’ Costa Deliziosa, Nov. 11-21, 2010. Excluding airfare, and with an “obstructed” ocean-view cabin, we each paid $1,300.
CEMAC for Cameroon
I have a recommendation for a great company for off-the-beaten-track travel in Africa. In June ’10 I took a private, independent tour of Cameroon from CEMAC Tours (Box 4877 Douala, Cameroon; phone +237 75 61 94 86 or 97 92 70 23).
Athens stay
From a trip my husband, Ed, and I took to Greece, I really recommend the following.
Holds back when haggling
I feel it is necessary to add my thoughts to the subscriber’s letter “Hints for Haggling” (May ’11, pg. 15).
Egypt after Mubarak
My husband, R.C., and I had booked our flights on Jan. 2, 2011, and committed to a trip to Egypt and Jordan for April 13-May 3. Then the uprisings began in Cairo. On Jan. 25, Internet and cell service were cut off. A full month would go by before we could make contact with our tour provider.
Caucasus with MIR
I took an extraordinary tour, “Treasures of the Trans-Caucasus: Classic Survey of Azerbaijan, Georgia & Armenia,” with MIR Corp. (Seattle, WA; 800/424-7289), May 4-18, 2010. The trip cost $6,395, land, and visas for Armenia and Azerbaijan added $246.
Costa, ‘designed to meet… interests of many cultures’
On Oct. 18, 2010, four of us left the US for an 11-day Mediterranean cruise on the Costa Cruises liner Costa Mediterranea, sailing from Savona/Genoa, Italy, to Rome and on to ports in Egypt, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey before returning to Savona on Oct. 31. My longtime girlfriend and I had a suite for $8,400.
A lifetime of travel
I was born in 1924 and have traveled all over the world. A couple of years ago, I sat down and wrote about some of my feelings and thoughts about the places I’ve been to and the people I’ve encountered. Here is some of what I wrote:
Turkey with Argeus
My wife and I took a 14-day tour of Istanbul and western Turkey, Sept. 18-Oct. 2, 2010. The tour with Argeus Tourism & Travel (Istiklal Cad. No.
Dnieper ‘uninteresting’
I read with interest the subscriber’s article “Cruising Ukraine’s Dnieper River” (May ’11, pg. 48), regarding her experience with Viking River Cruises.
Travel sketchbooks
When we were in Hong Kong in October ’09, it was raining too hard to hike Lamma Island, so we decided to look at old maps at Picture This! Gallery (Ste. 1308, 13th Floor, Office Tower, 9 Queen’s Rd., Central, Hong Kong, China; phone +852 2525 2820).
Memorable Morocco
At this time of unrest in several North African countries, I found no reason for concern at any time during my two weeks in Morocco, March 12-25, 2011. The weather was very comfortable and the fields were green with crops. The High Atlas Mountains were beautiful with snow and vistas of the country.
Montevideo visit
Stephen O. Addison, Jr., wrote about the Radisson Montevideo Victoria Plaza in Montevideo, Uruguay (Feb. ’11, pg. 74).
Sailing the Bering Sea
The lonely, obscure islands in the 878,000-square-mile Bering Sea — situated between Alaska and Russia — had always drawn me, but the difficulty and expense of visiting them had kept me from making the trip.
Moments in Patagonia
My husband, Earl, and I took the 18-day “Patagonia Frontiers” tour from Odysseys Unlimited (Newton, MA 888/370-6765), March 22-April 8, 2010. The price was $9,990 for the two of us (international air not included).
In and out of Buenos Aires
I agree 100% with the subscriber’s comment in the letter “Security Absurdity” (March ’11, pg. 29): EZE Airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is inconsistent with security.
Offbeat in Amsterdam
My companion, Judith Martin, and I aren’t drawn to charmless chain hotels, but for a stay in Amsterdam we were intrigued by the name misc eatdrinksleep (Kloveniersburgwal 20, 012 cv, Amsterdam, Netherlands; phone +31 0 20 330 62 41).
Panama City guide
My husband, Norman, and I knew we wanted to hire a tour guide to show us the major sights of Panama City in August 2010, and our trip’s best find was Alvamayita (Alva) Pinzón (cell phone 507 6676 4147 or e-mail alvamayita@yahoo.com).